Ring
by neahcampbells
Summary: Sometimes, Lucy's mind wandered, and she could only ask herself why things had turned out the way they had. She raised her hand, and the ring mocked her by glinting in the moonlight. For celestial-winter.


_Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail. All rights go to Hiro Mashima._

* * *

 _Ring_

 _Summary:_ Sometimes, Lucy's mind wandered, and she could only ask herself why things had turned out the way they had. She raised her hand, and the ring mocked her by glinting in the moonlight.

* * *

 _i. author_

There was a small coffee shop Lucy Heartfilia frequented often when she was in the mood for lighter reading. It was named something charming in French or Spanish, although Lucy wasn't sure because she had never taken to either language, despite her father's best efforts in producing an actual _lady_ who could both look pretty and sound smart.

But the coffee shop (or Jude Heartfilia's unreasonable expectations) were not the point.

The point _was_ that Lucy's favorite coffee shop had a small selection of classics that Lucy rather enjoyed. One day, tired from her chemistry lab, Lucy had stumbled her way to the small bookshelf, her eyes drifting towards the romance section, when a shiny blue spine caught her attention.

Lucy blinked, wondering if perhaps it was a new edition of another classic, but the title was unfamiliar. Taking it from the shelf, she studied the cover, which depicted two people sitting back to back. It showed their profiles, and the cover was in a very tasteful blue and black gradient, but it looked like the same person. Turning over the paperback, she scanned the blurb and spent the best part of the afternoon reading a story of twins and clones and human experimentation that sounded much too far-fetched but somehow made sense to her atrociously picky self.

The book was long, however, and it wasn't up for sale, so she was forced to leave it when the coffee shop closed. Impatient, Lucy checked no less than three bookstores before giving up, figuring the author was unknown, and resolved to be back the next day to finish it.

And so she did, her hands twitching, her mind racing with possible scenarios stemming from the rather cruel cliffhanger the book had ended with.

She later found that Smokescreen, as the book was called, was self-published by its author, Zeref Dragneel. It had been released a mere two months before Lucy had gotten her hands on it and its sequel, Nepenthe, would not be published for another year—or so Zeref Dragneel's frightfully efficient and professional website had informed her.

After ordering Smokescreen from the website, Lucy noted that Mr. Dragneel would be in Hargeon in about a month for a book signing, now excited at the prospect of meeting whoever had come up with such a brilliant book.

But this wasn't about Zeref. It was about Natsu.

 _ii. meeting_

By the time January rolled around, Lucy had introduced Smokescreen to no less than fourteen people. The book was getting attention, and she heard talk about the author signing with a big publishing company, but there was nothing set in stone.

The day of the book signing, Lucy headed to the bookstore by herself, alone now that she had returned to Hargeon for the new semester. Almost everyone she knew went to school in Magnolia, and none of her college friends had read the book yet, so it was natural for Lucy to go alone.

The book signing was taking place in a well-sized bookstore. While it wasn't a big chain by any means, this one happened to be one of the best bookstores in the city. Lucy had been surprised that a self-published author had been able to book the place at all, and so she arrived a few minutes before the event started, only to find the place packed.

Alarmed, she squeezed into the back of the store, managing to hear a wisp of what was being said. She was short enough that she couldn't see what was going on, but she could hear a man's voice reading one of the more memorable passages from Smokescreen. Unfortunately for Lucy, she was far too stifled by the volume of people around her to pay the voice the attention it deserved.

Thirty minutes later, as she watched a gigantic line loop around and _out_ the store as she stared transfixed, Lucy decided she might as well get something to eat. She'd expected the signing to be somewhat busy.

She hadn't expected a mob.

Exiting the bookstore, she made her way to a deli nearby and snagged the last free table after ordering her salad. The place was filling up, and it wasn't long until she felt people's eyes on her back, pressuring her to eat faster and leave.

"Excuse me," she heard a guy's voice say. Lucy looked up to find a guy peering down at her, a brown paper bag and coffee in hand. He was wearing a leather jacket and jeans, but the most distinctive thing about him was the _pink hair_. "Can I sit with you? Everywhere else is full."

He gave her a small smile that got her heart racing. Lucy looked away, aware that she'd been staring. "Sure," she said. Saying anything _but_ was rude and if there was something Lucy never was, it was rude.

The guy thanked her before he sat down, taking a blueberry bagel out of his bag as he started talking to her. Lucy, who had resigned herself to eating her salad in stony silence, was taken aback. "Were you at the book signing?"

He looked at her, expectant. Lucy bit her lip, having now lost the ability to speak. "Um, yeah."

"So was I." He looked around. "Man, I didn't expect so many people!"

Lucy nodded without a word, trying to think of something to say. Now that he'd started talking to her, they couldn't just eat in silence. It was so awkward and he was hot and why did this only happen to her like surely Levy didn't have random hot men come up to her when she was grumpy and wearing sweats—

"Guess we'll just wait it out, then?" His face lit up. "I'm Natsu, by the way."

Natsu held up his hand for her to shake, which she did. "Lucy."

 _iii. lips_

Natsu, it turned out, was Zeref Dragneel's brother. She had found out about a week after the book signing, where she'd left with her book untouched and nothing but the sound of a disembodied voice reading Smokescreen, her mind preoccupied with Natsu this and Natsu that. Natsu, who went to Hargeon University, was pre-med and also had his chemistry lab on Saturdays but was on a different section.

 _Fate,_ a sneaky voice in the back of her mind whispered.

 _Of course not,_ she told herself, blushing as she opened the door to her apartment.

He'd called two days later, but Lucy had stared at her phone as it had vibrated, not intending to answer. The next day she'd bumped into him at the library by pure chance, where she had been looking for references for her paper on Freud. He'd dragged her out to eat after that, assuring her it wasn't a date and that they were just friends.

Lucy told herself her heart didn't constrict at that.

And so life had continued until Saturday, a full week after the signing.

She was then answering his calls and his texts with her own, but she always made sure not to sound too eager. He was, after all, way out of her league and didn't dating involve someone chasing after someone else? She'd never dated before, and it _did_ feel childish to do that but… but she didn't want to have a broken heart in the middle of January, with no close friends to cry to and a workload that didn't let her think about anything but the symbolism in Frankenstein and the story progression of Pride and Prejudice.

The first thing he did when he came up to her was hug her. Lucy blushed at his familiarity, but she was becoming used to it, given that he did it every time he saw her.

He pulled a small brown package from his backpack once they were sitting.

Lucy tilted her head. "Just open it." Natsu grinned at her. The sun was setting by now, and because the two were sitting close to the window, the light slanted right over Natsu's head, making his hair look more beautiful than ever, now pink, red and gold. His skin was tanner, his eyes a dark green. He looked unreal and like he didn't belong next to her.

"Please?" Natsu prompted her again, a question in his eyes.

Lucy looked down at her lap, shaking away any thoughts of how Natsu looked. There was a lump on her throat that told her she'd cry that night, but at the moment she needed to smile.

Inside the box was a hardcover copy of Smokescreen, exactly the same as her own. She shot Natsu a quizzical glance, but gave up on him explaining when his sole response was a smirk. She opened the book, wondering if this was what she thought it was.

To Lucy-who-my-brother-is-crushing-on

—Zeref Dragneel

The message was written in neat, somewhat loopy and old-fashioned handwriting, but the words made her blush and gasp before slamming the book shut.

"Oh, what did he write?" Natsu leaned forward, attempting to get a peek at the signature. Lucy pressed the book against her chest, determined to hide it.

"Nothing," Lucy said.

"Come on, it wasn't nothing! He always tries to embarrass me so whatever he wrote, I _swear_. He's lying, okay?"

Natsu said it with a cheeky grin on his face. Lucy, who was certain she didn't want to show him the cover page, laughed and acted as if Zeref had written something sarcastic. Natsu didn't seem to find an argument against that, and soon the two had moved on to their chemistry homework, which they had taken to doing together.

Natsu walked her to her car when they were done. "Are you doing anything tonight?" he asked her as she dumped her bag on the passenger's seat.

"Sorry, I have a paper to write." She gave him a polite smile, one that said she wasn't interested despite being very interested indeed.

Natsu either chose to disregard that or didn't catch on, which Lucy thought was far more likely. "Right. Is it that Freud one you were working on the other day?"

No, it wasn't; the Freud paper because that one had been due yesterday. Lucy didn't have anything due for her lit classes until next Wednesday, and her words had been an excuse. Natsu's attention to detail was both surprising and touching, but she couldn't take it back.

Lucy reminded herself that getting attached was a bad thing, but her heart wasn't in it.

"Yeah, that one. I'll see you later." She leaned in for their customary hug—hugs she was growing fond of, and she'd be lying if she said she wasn't enjoying them.

Natsu smelled like cinnamon and lemon, as he always did. Lucy leaned her head on his shoulder, feeling him breathing against her hair. She giggled into his neck for no reason at all. Natsu gave an answering chuckle before he turned his face to look at her.

"What?" he teased. Lucy shook her head, what must have been a soft smile on her lips as she backed away, now feeling better.

"I need to go." Her voice was low but affectionate, and Lucy realized all at once how intimate being in his arms was. This was not a friend's hug, she knew that much, but it was too late to stop when Natsu's lips touched hers.

 _iv. love rival_

Lucy had spent her teenage years reading romance novels, daydreaming about the day someone would sweep her off her feet. This, all while exorcising control over her hormones and insisting on a set of requirements for her future beau that were so rigid they would have made her father proud, had Lucy felt the need to share the list with him.

Lucy wanted someone nice, studious, someone interested in writing and literature. Someone who could match her word for word, quote for quote. She wanted someone who could understand obscure references from Wuthering Heights and give her a knowing look and a chuckle before turning the conversation back around.

And instead, she got Natsu Dragneel.

There was nothing wrong with Natsu Dragneel, except that he'd taken her figurative list of requirements for a boyfriend and ripped it apart before throwing the little pieces out the window. He was charming in a way she'd never appreciated before. He didn't have the smoothness with words she would have expected to want from a partner, but he somehow knew just what to say at the right time regardless. He didn't read much fiction and had no idea what she was talking about when she ranted about Emma or Heathcliff, but he listened to her anyway, asking questions based on context.

It was terribly endearing and completely disarming.

It wasn't long after their first kiss that they started spending whole days together. Natsu had most of his classes scheduled in the morning while she was the opposite, so he'd always wait for her at the university café, whether she was done at three or six in the afternoon.

Lucy had always found him alone, a mocha to his right, buried under a mountain of books, except one day she found him sitting across a scary-looking man with long dark hair and piercings everywhere. She caught the man's eyes by accident while she was deciding whether to turn around and come back later or go say hi, but Natsu seemed to have noticed his friend looking at Lucy behind him.

"Lucy!" he called to her, waving her forward.

Doing her best to smile despite the nerves, she came around to their table.

Natsu leaned back on his chair, motioning towards the man across from him. "This is Gajeel. Gajeel, this is Lucy. She's my girlfriend."

He smiled at her, about to speak when someone spoke into Lucy's ear, making her flinch.

"Oh?" Lucy was turned around sharply by a set of hands on her shoulders. The guy in front of her had spiky black hair and had his shirt half unbuttoned, with no sign of a coat anywhere despite the harsh weather outside this time of year. "You're too pretty for that guy, but I see why he's been ignoring everyone this past month."

Lucy blushed. "Nice to meet you, I'm—" She was inwardly panicking, but meeting two of Natsu's friends wasn't as bad as the countless functions she'd been a part of when she'd been younger, when her parents had paraded her around to their friends.

"Hey, Lucy! Don't be so nice to that guy, he's a pervert!" Natsu stood up, taking her by the waist and pulling her away from his friend. Lucy smiled, feeling quite comfy with Natsu's arm wrapped around her.

"Gray, you're coming across as a psycho." Gazelle—was that his name? Lucy wondered—spoke from the side. He was still seated, looking calm despite the ruckus Natsu and Gray were causing.

"It's not my fault that flame brain's been sneaking around all this time." Lucy looked at Natsu from her corner of her eye, trying her best not to stiffen.

Of course, Natsu noticed anyway.

Natsu jumped back, alarm clear on his face. "It's _not_ what it sounds like! Look at them, I didn't want you to meet them because they're weird, okay? There's no one else." Lucy nodded at his words, not happy with the way he could reassure her with a word, but was relieved all the same.

Lucy yelped when Gray snaked an arm around her neck. She wondered if all of Natsu's friends were so direct and hands-on. "Don't worry, Lucy, if this guy can't keep his hands to himself, send him to me."

Gazelle—Gajeel?—snorted, crossing his arms in front of his chest. "Follow your own advice, ice princess." Gajeel pointed at Lucy with his chin. "I don't think she wants you to—oh no."

Lucy looked at Gray, asking him _what_ with a look, but he was looking just as confused as Lucy felt.

"Who's this, Gray-sama?"

Gray appeared to freeze besides Lucy before he drew away, his movements slow and cautious. Natsu hauled her behind him, pushing her into the chair he'd vacated just minutes ago.

"Juvia," Natsu laughed, a nervous tenor to his voice. "Um, this is Lucy and she's my girlfriend so there's no need to worry _at all_."

"I see."

"Juvia, really." Gray was rubbing at the back of his neck, looking sheepish.

Lucy had to lean over the table to get a look at the girl they were speaking to, but her mouth fell open when she did. Juvia had long, pale blue hair that reached the middle of her back. She was wearing a navy trench coat over a blue dress and black stockings. Together with her boots, she looked like a well-coordinated disaster made for winter. She was ridiculously pretty, with big eyes and one of those ageless faces that made people look youthful without looking young.

At the moment, that very intimidating and jealous-inducing face was set into a frown, her eyes glaring at Gray, who was looking up at the ceiling. "I'm sure Natsu-san has the best of intentions." Juvia got Natsu to step back with a mere glance. Lucy would have been amused, bare for the fact that Juvia slammed her hand on the table. She leaned in close, almost nose to nose with Lucy, before whispering, "Love rival."

Everyone cringed, but Juvia remained unaffected. She straightened up, flicked back her hair and strolled away, looking like she hadn't left everyone stupefied behind her.

"That went well." Lucy sent a swift glare at Natsu, intent on having him explain later.

 _v. mirror_

In retrospect, it had been impossible to stop what they had from the very beginning. It had gone too fast, and Natsu had moved in less than two months later. They were happy, though, because Natsu made Lucy's doubts go away and for some reason he liked her.

Sometimes Lucy stood in front of the mirror, twisting this way and that, trying to see what he saw in her. It wasn't hard to see what it was, either. Self-esteem issues aside, Lucy knew she was attractive, but knowing it and feeling like it were two different things. Her nights were spent wondering if Natsu liked her just because she was pretty, and if he would like her when she wasn't quite as beautiful as she was now.

But Natsu made the doubts go away in the morning. He wiped away tears he didn't understand and hugged her when she refused to explain them. He never pushed. He never asked, but he still stayed with her, holding her in case she felt like talking to him.

And slowly, the doubts faded.

At some point, Lucy became used to kissing him good morning and whispering her goodnights before bed, while Natsu kept his nightlight on because he had far more work than she did, courtesy of his degree. She stopped pulling away from him every time he wrapped his arms around her waist for more than a minute. She stopped hiding him away from her father, who disapproved of them living together. She stopped telling him she was tired when he wanted to go out. She stopped saying no to spending time with his friends. She stopped turning down dinner when Zeref or Erza passed by Hargeon. She stopped thinking he would vanish in a second because he didn't _really_ like her.

Lucy stopped staring into the mirror.

 _vi. adjustments_

There had been one person Lucy hadn't met that day in the café, when Lucy had first met Juvia. Her name was Lisanna, and Lucy had said hello to her over the phone several times before she'd met Natsu's other friends, but she tried not to pry. She was Natsu's childhood friend, and was going to school in Mildea, where the two had grown up.

Lucy had become friends with Gray and Gajeel with next to no effort, but Juvia had proven to be another matter. She had given Lucy an icy glance the next time she'd seen her, and the two had been on somewhat civil terms until one day Lucy showed up to the movies wearing a pink skirt that Juvia, in a disastrous turn of events, was wearing in blue. They'd both demanded the other change on the spot, only to spend the movie fuming, with Gray and Natsu perilously seated in between them. There was little that was more galling to a fledging fashion designer like Juvia.

Regardless, Juvia and Lucy had far too much in common not to be friends. They both liked mushy romance, they both took their coffee with more sugar than actual coffee and they both preferred the colder months over the warmer ones. They liked staying up at night listening to random pop songs without any care as to what the lyrics were saying. Juvia spent her nights sketching while Lucy doodled on the margins of her notebooks as she outlined story after story, dreaming of writing a bestseller.

When finals came around that semester, Natsu confined himself to the bedroom while Juvia and Lucy stayed up until early morning, Lucy proofreading Juvia's papers while Juvia triple-checked Lucy's physics homework.

And that was the start of a beautiful friendship.

 _vii. father_

Natsu was the youngest of three siblings.

Zeref was the oldest, and a prodigy. By the time he was nineteen, he'd gotten a PhD in astrophysics. How he'd ended up becoming a novelist was beyond Lucy's comprehension, but he seemed to be very content to write three bestsellers a year while his actually-busy astrophysicist of a wife marketed them in her spare time.

Erza was older than Natsu by a few months, but Lucy saw very little of her because she played tennis professionally and was always touring outside of Fiore. She wasn't the top female player _yet_ but she was getting there.

And then there was Natsu. He was twenty-one, a year older than Lucy. Natsu was Zeref's biological brother but ironically, he looked much more like Erza, who wasn't related to him as far they knew. The three of them had been adopted by their father Igneel, who had never married.

Lucy had gotten nothing but acceptance when she'd met each one of them, but the same couldn't be said for _her_ family concerning Natsu.

Jude Heartfilia disapproved of Natsu in almost every way. Her father hated everything, from Natsu's hair to the way he dressed, to his accent, to his chosen career, to his grades and his family. It was everything. It didn't matter to him that Natsu's hair was natural or that Natsu was _not_ , in fact a "wannabe biker," or that it'd been Lucy who'd picked out the leather jacket he'd worn the day she'd introduced him. It didn't matter that most people would be more than happy with their daughter marrying a nice doctor. No, instead he took Natsu's general cluelessness—which Lucy found to be endearing—to be idiocy, and insisted that Lucy should marry someone who could manage the Heartfilia Kozern.

"He won't make it through med school," he kept telling her. "You _know_ he won't."

Lucy insisting that Natsu did get high grades or that he had an enviable quantity of extracurriculars fell on deaf ears, however. Her father refused to accept that he was any good for his prized daughter, and he insisted Natsu was just a phase.

"You're too good for him," her mother whispered as she combed through Lucy's hair with her fingers, just like she had when Lucy had been younger.

"Mom, not you too—" Lucy turned around, feeling betrayed.

Layla shushed her as she continued to slide her fingers down her hair. "You're too good for anyone, Lucy. Do you really love him this much?"

Lucy pretended to hesitate, knowing her mom would think she was being childish if she answered immediately. "Yes, mom."

Layla sighed. "But can't you at least get married?" Lucy had told her mom they'd been living together, but she had made her swear her father wouldn't hear it from her. "It's just not proper, sweetheart."

" _Mo-o-om!_ " Lucy blushed. "I'm too young and Natsu's going to be in school for a long time."

"Yes, yes, of course. You two are so responsible." Layla laughed. "But you could ask him, you know. It shouldn't be this big thing you never talk about."

Lucy made a vague sound of acquiescence.

Natsu had never so much as mentioned the word _marry_ , and why should he? A year was no time at all at their age. They had other things to think about, other worries, and was that reason enough to not live, not fall in love, not attempt to remain close to someone?

"I don't think it's a big deal."

Layla placed one of her fingers under her chin before she leaned in to kiss her forehead. "We just don't want him to hurt you, Lucy."

Lucy forced a smile onto her face. Her mother's words reminded her of her own doubts from when she and Natsu had started dating.

"He wouldn't do that," Lucy insisted.

Layla's smile softened. "I'm not the one you need to convince, sweetie."

That, of course, brought forth the question of why her father needed to have a say in everything Lucy did, but Lucy stayed silent.

 _viii. celebration_

Lucy and Natsu woke up early the day the envelope was due to arrive. Lucy made breakfast, as was the norm for Fridays, while Natsu got ready for one of his hellish exam days. For some reason, his professors seemed to delight in scheduling exams on the same days.

"You'll get in," Lucy murmured. She leaned up on her toes to brush her lips against his.

"Okay," Natsu sighed to himself. "Okay, I—yeah." He shook his head as if to clear it.

Lucy hugged him tight, well-aware of how little sleep he'd gotten, too worried over the admissions decision. He'd woken her up more than once during the night, but she'd pretended to be asleep, not wanting him to feel guilty. "I'll have it by the time you come back," she assured him.

Natsu nodded before touching his forehead to hers. "I know."

When the envelope finally found itself in Lucy's hands, she stared at the white surface of it, her fingers itching to open it and see.

"It's here," she told the empty room before her.

Natsu arrived at their apartment late in the evening. He dropped his backpack by the door in a rush, his jacket going the same way, as he focused on the envelope in her hands.

Lucy handed it to him, both excited and terrified.

Natsu tore at it in a rush, as if he had forgotten how to open an envelope in the last twenty-four hours. His fingers ghosted over the paper inside before he looked away, pushing the envelope back into her hands.

He spun around, giving her his back. "Can you do it? I can't look."

Lucy wrapped her arms around his neck from behind. "We can do it together," she said.

Natsu nodded, still not looking at her. Lucy kissed his neck, knowing he wouldn't turn.

Lucy took the paper out of its envelope, her eyes sweeping through the words.

"You got in." Natsu didn't move. Lucy glanced at his face, finding him looking confused. He was too cute.

"I got in?" His voice cracked.

She hugged him tighter. "You're too tall for this, Natsu. My tiptoes hurt." Lucy fell back on the balls of her feet. She grabbed his hand, tugging him towards the kitchen. "Dinner's ready."

"But I got in?"

" _Yes_ , you dork. Do you want to call Igneel?"

Natsu gave her a bright a smile, as if her words had finally gotten through to him. He pulled her into his arms once again. "Igneel can wait five minutes." He buried his hands in her hair before leaning down for a kiss.

Lucy called home the next day, intent on making her parents think better on Natsu. Her father was still unconvinced by the time he hung up, but her mother, at least, sounded like she approved of Natsu a little more.

ix. camera

Lucy was always the driver.

It was ironic because before she'd moved out, Lucy hadn't been allowed to drive anywhere, courtesy of her chauffeur. She'd put her foot down before coming to college, given that her father wanted to set up an entire entourage for her, including a full security detail. Lucy had drawn the line at her state-of-the art apartment and her BMW, and even that was too much.

Natsu, however, ended up dizzy every time he stepped into a car. All vehicles had the same effect on him, and so his preferred form of transportation was having Lucy drive him. His second was taking the subway, which was convenient, but Lucy didn't mind driving him around. Natsu tended to pick early-morning classes, though, and he was always very nice about waking her up in the morning and cooking her breakfast on most days.

Their morning drives were always spent in silence, with the instrumental music Lucy preferred playing in the background. Natsu didn't get sick unless he spent long amounts of time stuck inside a car, but talking was more than he could handle.

"You'd look nice if I had my camera with me."

Lucy glanced away from the road, surprised that he was well enough to speak today. He was slumped on the seat next to her, gripping onto his backpack like his life depended on it. He looked pale but not green, like he normally did.

"Thank you," she said. It was a nice morning. Spring was turning into summer, and the trees lining the road were brimming with leaves.

"I like that skirt," he murmured as he shifted to face her.

Lucy snorted. "You love _all_ my skirts."

Natsu mustered up enough strength to grin. "No, I love everything."

Lucy bit her lip, fighting a grin that she was sure would look idiotic. They'd been together for more than a year, but she still found his honesty disarming in the extreme. Lucy was used to having men tell her she was beautiful, but no one said it out of the blue like Natsu did, and it made her heart flutter inside her chest.

"Is that something you should say when you're going to throw up?"

"It's a virtue to appreciate beautiful things when times are dire." He tried to say the words in a pompous tone but failed. The phrase was something Natsu said to make her laugh. Loke used it as his catchphrase, and Natsu liked to randomly mock him for it, even if he wasn't there.

It made Lucy laugh without fail, which may have been the reason he used it so often.

Lucy drove past the university gate. Natsu tended to perk up around this time, anticipating the end of his daily torture, but not today. Lucy smiled at that.

"We could go to the park today." _Going to the park_ was code for Natsu taking a million pictures of Lucy with his insanely-expensive camera.

She pulled into the parking lot soon after, but she gave Natsu five minutes to recover, like she always did.

"I think I have too much due tomorrow for that." He gave her a disappointed look before kissing her goodbye.

"Tomorrow," he promised.

There was always tomorrow, Lucy thought as she waved at him.


End file.
